From Eden to Heaven: God's Redemptive Plan for Reconciliation

Grateful for your unwavering support and prayers, especially during times of spiritual warfare, living with central pain syndrome, and traumatic brain injuries, we bring you a transformative episode centered on reconciliation. We acknowledge the journey from a survivor to a thriver, sharing how God's glory is revealed through our trials. We're thrilled to announce our upcoming collaboration with Jeff Tharp on the ElijahFire podcast, aiming to broaden the reach of our hopeful perspectives and share His Hope through my story.

Reflect on the perfection of the Garden of Eden and how sin disrupted this harmony, causing broken relationships with God and others. Jesus' profound response to the Pharisee about the greatest commandment highlights love as the essence of biblical reconciliation. Through stories of adultery, spiritual warfare, and the impact of mental illness, discover how deep faith and the transformative power of Christ's sacrifice can lead to miraculous reconciliations, even when societal and church leaders have their own reservations.

We delve into the importance of reconciliation in our relationships and our walk with Christ. Learn about the challenges and boundaries that arise when one party is unwilling to seek reconciliation, the necessity to set boundaries in abusive relationships, and the necessity of our being reconciled to Christ OURSELVES, first. 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Hopeful Perspective Podcast. I am your host, jason Hopkins. I cannot believe that, as we begin episode 11, that we have been able to be together each week without an obstacle nor a single omission. I feel like I have been covered and protected through the worst of spiritual warfare during the six weeks I shared my story, as well as I have been guarded even during painful central pain syndrome, flare-ups and other routine issues I battle on a recurring basis. I appreciate all of you who have been along for the journey to this point and I cherish all of your prayers for me as I seek to do what I have been called to in this season. To this point, we have been learning how my own life story illustrates God's glory through my own destructive life experiences and divine redemption, moving from survivor to thriver. My heart is to share my story for His glory, as I have also been called to follow Christ in my redemption, to which he gets all the glory. Some of you have said you wouldn't know by the podcast so far, but I do struggle with communication at times and basically brain stamina due to my TBI from the brain injuries. I just trust the Lord with all of this and know, regardless of where he takes us. He is ahead of us, his son is with us and His Spirit is within us. Together we have talked through the basic yet foundational principles of suffering, redemption, forgiveness and restoration, or, as we explored last week, the otherwise known as renewing of the mind. Today we are going to talk through biblical reconciliation, more specifically, the role that our relationships with God and our other people play on our journey. So I encourage you to grab your favorite snack, hot or cold beverage, get comfortable and come on this journey with me today as we explore the power and the freedom found in transformation into a new child of God.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Before we jump into today's topic, I told you last week I have exciting news about our podcast. I have been invited by my good friend, jeff Tharp, to collaborate with him on the podcast he hosts to share my story for God's glory. If you have been following from the beginning of our short history, you know that the mission and vision of the podcast is to share the hopeful perspective with as many people as possible, to extend our reach and influence as we grow. I have stated that, whether we reach five people or five million people, that the Lord will be glorified through the podcast. I am thrilled to, already, so early in the podcasting journey, to be invited by my good friend and his sweet podcast ministry to share my story for Christ's glory. I want to encourage all of you listening to me that if you are looking for an uplifting, spirit-filled and edifying experience, check out the Elijah Fire podcast. Elijah Fire one word. They have around 15,000 subs and over a half a million in total traffic per month who their online ministry is reaching. Let's just say that at this point in our podcasting journeys, they are just a little further ahead on the path than we are. Again, I am excited to join them as we record the podcast tomorrow and we get to share the hope of Christ found in my story. I will let you know when the episode is being released and I appreciate all your support and especially your prayers for this divine appointment.

Speaker 1: 3:38

Now let's jump into today's episode topic. I want to begin our time together in a reflective mindset. So whether you are driving, sitting on the porch, washing your dishes, mowing the lawn or wherever you are, keep your eyes on the road, of course, but join me in this exercise. I want to begin our conversation on reconciliation by reflecting on the incredible scene that we read in Genesis regarding the Garden of Eden. Can you imagine what it must have been like for Adam and Eve living in their own? Hawaii, bahamas, jamaica, whatever your dream destination is? But now imagine all of these locations rolled up in one in Adam and Eve's own full-time, extravagant vacation. Except at this point, the only so-called job Adam had to vacation from, or just simply live as it would have been for them, is found in Genesis 2, 15 and 16. Here it says that Adam was to work and take care of the garden. Here it says that Adam was to work and take care of the garden. We do know that what we think of as difficult labor was not involved. We must account for the idea that Adam nor Eve wouldn't even know the concept of difficulty yet. I imagine he and Eve picking their favorite flowers, having fun, frolicking in one of the four rivers they had access to, splashing and swimming in the water, basking in the sun, sipping on whatever heavenly cocktail or concoction they desired. At any time they were inclined. Scripture says that they had full authority over creation and they were to take care of it.

Speaker 1: 5:21

I can hear Eve laughing at some of the animal names Adam had just created to call the various wildlife around them before her arrival, as we read in Genesis 2, 19 and 20, that it was his assignment of naming the animals, not just her appropriate laughter, perhaps and this is just my conjecture, and possibly even my imagination applying real world ideas to the story, because we are not told the specifics. But I can just see adam responding to eve's laughter with go ahead, my helper, my wife, you can rename a few of them for yourself. I figure eve named the seahawks and the Ducks and the Beavers and the Huskies and the Cougars all amazing animals, can you see? I live in the Pacific Northwest and you are saying what is a Seahawk? Well, they must have been in Eden and since become native to Washington, oregon, my home state, home of the mighty ducks, the beavers and our beloved trailblazers. Not an animal, as far as I can tell.

Speaker 1: 6:28

But we have digressed. We can figure that, while what Eve said was logical and organized, that Adam was the one probably responsible for designating the names of the blobfish, the pleasing fungus beetle look it up. And of course he was the one trying to figure out the duck-billed platypus and then the screaming hare armadillo. Yet in our reflection, try to imagine them running amongst lions and tigers, grizzly bears and tarantulas Okay, we've gone far enough, but imagine they're experiencing a level of safety and security in this paradise, amongst all his creation.

Speaker 1: 7:08

They didn't know the concept of danger, yet. They didn't know sin, sickness nor sadness. They didn't know what a power struggle or an argument on the way to church was Okay, we know that. They didn't even, maybe, know what a church was, or did they? I ask this because we read in the New Testament that Jesus says again truly, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for it, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven, for where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.

Speaker 1: 7:47

We see all of this in Matthew 18, 20, and then read in proper context, with the appropriate hermeneutics or biblical interpretation being applied. We see that this is given at the tail end of Jesus' addressing broken relationships and sin in the church. We know that, though Adam and Eve knew and walked intimately with God, thus fulfilling the definition of church that they didn't yet know broken relationship or sin. Yet Applying appropriate hermeneutics is so important to gleaning and mining the nuances found in scripture Believers for generations have found in scripture.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Believers for generations have genuinely, yet mistakenly, used this passage speaking about two to three believers gathered therefore, god is with them as merely applying to answering and agreeing with our prayers, or to sound as though, because we are gathered as two to three or more, in his name he is therefore present. Is that thought consistent with what we know about God, though? You see, we are instructed that when Jesus ascended, he was leaving a comforter, a helper in the Holy Spirit, who we now had direct access to. Once we have made Jesus the Lord of our life, having repented and turned to our life with him, we have a helper in the Holy Spirit on that walk. We pray and have access to the Lord when alone, so why would we have to gather in two to three to access his presence?

Speaker 1: 9:20

In this verse, that must not be referring to what we think it does, which means we have to read scripture within its context, and we will dive more into what that means in terms of today's topic. But we have strayed away from Eden and we have to get back to our pondering of Adam and Eve. See, they didn't have to worry about hermeneutics or homiletics or eschatology, or even their own biology. Yet Am I right? We have to understand that the first couple didn't just have paradise due to the environment lacking, sin and stress, sickness and sadness. As we have said, we read in Genesis that they talked with God directly. We hear that he would walk and talk in the garden with them direct Genesis, chapter 3, and this was normal for them. Imagine having direct access to the Lord in a physical sense and it being a normal thing.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Yet even in their paradise there was designated boundaries. We all know do not eat that fruit or they would surely die. They didn't know death yet, because its sting had never entered their prolific existence to this point. Yet the Lord imposed this significant boundary and we know, because they did everything together, that they would both participate by giving in to temptation, not due to their lacking of anything, because we know they had everything they could ever need, but because they were tempted by the half-truths and questioning of the enemy who we know eventually accessed the garden within his own caricature. We know him as the serpent. You do not lack. The serpent quipped God is providing, but what if you could have more? Did God really say you could die? How many times have I questioned or crossed a boundary, because even though my grass was pretty green, I am tempted with the notion of getting even greener grass on the other side.

Speaker 1: 11:32

Then Eve, having only known full provision, sufficient protection and everlasting peace to this point in her life, and Adam, who had never worried, never worked, as again God had provided, nor ever walked a day in his life without God. Neither of them, to this point, had known what death or destruction may have looked like. But the both of them would give in to the deception and the Bible says their eyes were opened to their being naked. Something that was so natural, so normal, so biologically and psychologically inconsequential, as God had intended, was now a source of shame to them. Yet the deepest division and most significant consequence of their allowing sin, sorrow and separation in through their, their disobedience was that relationship, for the first time in history, had been broken. Their relationship with God had been fractured for the first time, and we read by the finger pointing with one another in Genesis 12 and 13 that they experienced friction in their relationship.

Speaker 1: 12:41

If you are a believer in Jesus and or you are familiar with the rhetoric of the Christian faith, you may have heard that one of the consequences of sin is how it separates us from God or others. We see its introduction in the first marriage and the first people. In their place of bliss and paradise, satan was now in their home and tempting them to go outside the safety and boundary of their relationships. And now, because they crossed the boundaries, they now were going to experience the physical and spiritual consequences of their choices. They would be forced out of the place they knew was home. Both of them would now experience what would eventually be called hardship. Work would no longer be a joyful experience to Adam. We see in Genesis 3, 17, and 19.

Speaker 1: 13:32

And God declared in verses 22 and 23 that now, because they were like one of us, knowing good and now evil, another boundary had to be formed. Some scholars believe this us refers to the Godhead, the Father, son and the Holy Spirit, while others believe it to be the angels or the cherubim, because God places them as guardians of the garden a few verses later, when establishing the boundary of Adam and Eve leaving the garden and having to be kept out. In any case, we now know that a one-time pure and perfect creation in the world we had come to know would now be punctuated by good and evil, comfort and conflict, beauty and brokenness. Moreover, we know that all their offspring, birthed painfully, mind you, as an additional effect on all women and their female offspring, all their offspring birthed painfully, mind you, as an additional effect on all women and their female offspring, that their offspring would forever experience their consequences of the sin. They would be both tempted toward it and be separated spiritually from it, and all relationships were subjected to this curse of division for the rest of time. As we know it, as Satan seeks to come between God's creation and forever question God's commands to us. I imagine you know firsthand whether your marriage, your family, friendships, co-workers, ministry relationships you too have experienced this curse and this division. We have taken this time to experience more fully the relational bliss and then the relational brokenness that resulted from the first marriage, the first human relationship in history that Satan came between. We will come back to this story briefly in a moment. Yet I want to move forward on why the brokenness and division that resulted in the introductory relationship matters to us today and what we are to do about it.

Speaker 1: 15:30

A couple few millennia or so later, jesus was asked by an expert of Jewish law, one of the Pharisees that were attempting to entrap him. In Matthew 22, 37 through 40, we read Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is, like it, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Wait what, how profound is this response the Lord gives his adversary? The greatest commandment of Jewish law is that of love, and Jesus said nothing about position, possessions nor protection or any other subject that the Jewish law covered in those days, laws that, if you recall, were given to Moses to re-establish the communion and the worship that was affected by rebellion and sin that were introduced from the Adamic. Curse upon them.

Speaker 1: 16:41

First, let me say the law was not insignificant, as it provided the necessary guidelines and the boundaries for the people to live fruitful and fulfilled lives as they abided by the law and the theocracy. Here now is this Jewish man, a traveling rabbi, who some were calling the Messiah, declaring that the greatest law is to love God and to love others, that all the rest of the law was fulfilled once we mastered, or let's just say, moved faithfully in living out these commandments, and this makes sense Now. If you were to ever have time to read the Torah, the Old Testament, you will be able to come up with 613 laws that were given to the Jewish people. The Jewish people called this the mitzvah, the Hebrew for the laws or commandments. Jesus was basically declaring that, out of the 10 commandments and of the 613 total commandments, a Jewish convert would have to know and follow that they all point to the two most significant commands, the same two relationships that were essentially broken by sin in the fall of Adam and Eve the broken relationship with God and the broken relationships they had with one another. They were separated by their sin from God, who banished them from the garden, and they were emotionally separated from one another, and every relationship within their offspring and those who would populate and be produced throughout history would bear the relational effects of sin in these same two vital relationships.

Speaker 1: 18:15

Yet isn't it so, god, that in his own sovereignty and omnipotence, he didn't just leave us in the consequences of our sin. He also provided a way out? This is what it means to reconcile, to restore that which has been broken in a relationship, to rebuild what has been destroyed, and that one of the ministries to one another we are to be about is the ministry of reconciliation. Now let us return, as promised, to the story of the Garden of Eden, with our main characters, adam and Eve. Remember, god didn't just leave them in their place of shame and sin.

Speaker 1: 18:53

God addressed their current position of shame by creating a covering for their now exposed bodies with his own hands, hands that had once created them without shame within their nakedness, but now had to guard and protect them from themselves as they experienced the new effects of their sin in the future the coldness, the nakedness, the pain, the exposure, not only physically, but spiritually, mentally, emotionally and even now sexually. Spiritually, mentally, emotionally and even now sexually. So he didn't just address their current position of shame. He addressed their current position by providing a covering. And then he addressed their eternal position by evicting them from the garden and preventing them from not only eating illegal produce, but also preventing what would result in an eternal spiritual separation from him. He cared about them now and he cared about their eternity. We can see, even in the first relationship, the truth of 1 Corinthians 10.13. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. I want you to see how consistent themes are within the scriptures. I want you to see that the Lord is capable of meeting us in our current circumstance and will cover all of our shame and sin if we turn to him.

Speaker 1: 20:21

The rest of scripture from that first relationship in the garden of Genesis is the story, through the Adamic, the Noahic and the Mosaic covenants, of him providing a way out of bondage that we often create ourselves by reconciling our eternal position through the sacrifices that we were called to make. And then he saw that there was only one who could make such a sacrifice, the one who would take on the bondage of sin and the sting of death forever. That is the story of the new covenant and the propitiation of Christ, the only one who could make up for the sin of Adam and Eve, cain and Abel, abraham and Moses, peter and Paul, all of Israel, all of the Middle East, past and modern, the United States of America, past and modern, every tribe, every tongue, every nation, all of human history and their sins could and would be forgiven upon the altar of Christ Through his sacrifice. This is the new covenant.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Your first sin to your most recent sin, your latest anger outburst with your spouse or child, your secrecy, utilizing the internet for porn and or dating sites as a married man or woman, all those secret trips to the liquor store or maybe it's to the Taco Bell drive-thru to utilize a substance that will make it all go away? Perhaps you are skimming a little money off the top at work and you figure it's not hurting anybody. You have your sobriety chip, but you are telling people you are a few years clean, while all the while you've changed your drug of choice completely with a consistent dealer and routine. Maybe it's your last time that you pass judgments about that person who annoys you or threatens you by their position. You think they are not as good as you are, as spiritual or smart or as successful as you are, or you think they are better than you. And you now are entrenched in the envy and your bitterness and your resentment. So you are tempted to shame them, even if just in your mind, or you are tempted to shun and distance them in your jealousy. Whatever past or current or future sins you have, no matter their size nor their quantity. They are all forgiven. It was done. This was the ultimate reconciliation between God and us so that we could walk together again, not just now, but for eternity. That, friends, but for eternity that friends, is good news, full of hope and redemption, and that is the gospel message. Yet we know that, even though our sins are forgiven, that we will still experience both sin and the consequences of our sins that affect us. This side of heaven we still see the enemy serpent head at times creeping in our relationships, trying to create separation. I will demonstrate later how my own sins separated me and how I pursued reconciliation.

Speaker 1: 23:35

Let's look at what the Bible says of relationships that are broken. We read all throughout Genesis the effects of sin and how it destroys relationships Murder, idolatry. Recall last episode we addressed how addiction and idolatry are often synonymous Heroin, meth, pills, alcohol, sex, food, relationships and codependency, gambling power, money position, anger, anxiety Some people get high on being angry or anxious Pornography. All of these can become our God and any God put before the Lord of heaven and earth is idolatry. But continue on in the book of Genesis. We finish off with witnessing in the book acts of deception, betrayal, sexual immorality. I mean the bases are covered in the manner and amount of ways that separated people from their creator and those he created for us to be in relationships with. You ought to read through Genesis and then take note of how each sin you come across what the relational impact of a particular action was.

Speaker 1: 24:48

I mean, it's an intriguing study, and it isn't until Exodus and some 400 years after the flood that the Lord utilized to cleanse all the evil and sin, that we read of the crucial character of Moses, who would now be the designated, anointed figure, that the Lord would establish first our 10 commandments and what would eventually be known as those 613 halakha, or Jewish laws. He provided a way out the Mosaic law, specifically the ceremonial law that governs sacrifices. This ritual system revealed not only the need for a sacrifice to be made for sins, but would point to the messianic hope found in Christ as our perfect sacrifice. The people of their day could rely on the law and the prophets to add credibility to whomever was to move forward and fulfill all the prophecies projected about a Messiah and someone who could save them. Just like today, anyone can look backward and see how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies all throughout the Law and the Prophets, making them credible regardless how strict the measuring stick was.

Speaker 1: 25:54

The Jewish perception and expectations of the Messiah differed in part, as we commonly know. Yet Jesus fulfilled the prophecies that defied the expectations and desires of the religious leaders of the day when you read the New Testament. And all of this was sovereignly woven into his redemptive plan. Jesus would ultimately become the sacrifice, as we said before, and the price of purchase is steep and is to be redeemed for all of us today. You see, when he told us to love God and love others, these were the greatest of the halakha. He said this with the full wisdom of what the law was intended to provide for worship and for relationship, if lived out in fullness. He told the religious leaders to love God and love others, with the full perspective that this would be difficult and at times feel downright impossible for his followers. He also had the divine perspective of providing the new covenant and the new kingdom of a new church, of new relationships and of new hope. With God, it is possible to fulfill the spirit of the law. Many of these, the disciples, wouldn't even understand until much later, let alone the Pharisees and those who were his adversaries. Fortunately, we have his messages and we also have the apostles who helped us understand the ministry of loving God and loving others. We are given an understanding of what reconciliation truly is and how to practically live a life reconciled to God and reconciled to people when we are called to be.

Speaker 1: 27:30

I want to share with you from my life a particular story that may be difficult to hear 15 years after its plot would begin in my life. If you are listening today and you have heard my story, shared within six episodes, you know I shared in brief that, while having dissociative identity disorder that my own Christian host that is, the one part of me that was the one that God created during seasons of great difficulty, before I was healed of the disorder and surgery and before I even found healthy balance, that I had a full-on affair with one of my wife's good friends, one of my own good friends, who had been called for a season to walk along with us. You see, so much shame and stigma does get applied to adulterers because of the great pain the sin causes, those that they hurt and also the great separation from God and one another due to the idolatry that adultery represents. I hope you can see the synonymous nature of these words the pain of adultery, destroying relationships and marriages and as a result, we see why the scarlet letter. You know for you literary buffs, why it's so powerful for those who have committed this grievous act.

Speaker 1: 28:50

But I have to say something in specific regarding adultery that comes from this story. You see, the woman that I had an affair with within my personality disorder, she was the last woman who was in your Sunday school dressed in their Sunday best, coming from a Christian family that you would ever consider to breaking her marriage vows. She and her husband hadn't even as so much as kissed before their wedding day. Due to their significant discipline and strong conviction, they were going to be missionaries and they were building up support and preparing for their eventual journey. While that time, they were in our small group and she was one of the strongest and most sensitive of prayer warriors that we knew. Again, no one wants to be in a lineup of people that you think would commit adultery, but if she was in that line, she'd be the first person you'd say no way to and you would deduce from the equation.

Speaker 1: 29:50

Yet we know who Satan is In his deceptive and demonic strategy. He was able to creep his head into our relationship as she was part of our support team as I walked with mental illness and instability, just as we were a part of theirs. She and her husband walked through the highs and the lows of my disorder and she got caught up within this tornado of spiritual warfare, demonic oppression and soul ties that were formed between the two of us as some necessary boundaries were crossed in the relationship and, before you knew it, as some necessary boundaries were crossed in the relationship and before you knew it, we were having a full-on physical affair. I was switched into protective personalities throughout the course of the affair, which for practical purposes, means that my Christian host or my core identity was hijacked. I was not yet able to walk with the Lord in my disorder, who enabled me to remain present. Due to the satanic ritual abuse I endured in my childhood, many demonic vows were made which spiritually impacted these personality parts. I had and would affect me into my adulthood, sabotaging any relationship that my personalities perceived could possibly hurt me. Satan had his heyday sabotaging this once completely pure relationship with our friends that at the beginning held beautiful boundaries and a beautiful, profound reciprocity of edification that existed between the two couples as we walked together shoulder to shoulder, bearing one another's burdens and the after effects of our sinful affair were that two marital relationships and four godly friendships were violated and they were broken.

Speaker 1: 31:34

We have spent the last few episodes talking through the biblical perspective of suffering, as well as the scriptural imperatives to lay down our lives and pick up our cross, to forgive others as we are forgiven, and also we have examined what it means to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are not just called to walk with Christ by laying down our selfish will and submitting to his will as if that is easy. Nor are we called just to forgive others as we are forgiven and that's just the end of it. We are called to undergo renewal by allowing him to replace all the survival and projected lies of the enemy on our life with the truth that is found in true restoration. And then we are called to live out reconciliation or to pursue the rebuilding and reconstructing that in our life which is broken.

Speaker 1: 32:22

My last point is that this whole paradigm isn't as simple as a one, two-three, step-by-step plan done over a few days, nor is it as complicated as an alternative theology that adds additional works to the salvation message that's found in Christ. If you have received either message, then? Do not hear me wrong. Rather, it is a process by which I have found in my own life where God has revealed how his son himself was betrayed and broken and, by the power of the sacrifice he made on our behalf, gave us the power and authority to forgive sins of our perpetrators and of ourselves. And he has modeled. He has modeled the message and the process by which our earthly and fleshly lives will have to die away to our new identities that are found in him. We have this power and authority to not only undergo a transformative process that reveals his work, but also, when we reconcile that which the world sees as broken, we reveal his power. You see, this whole process would play out the next few years.

Speaker 1: 33:28

After our affair. My wife and I had to undergo a restoration process where we laid down our lives to one another. My wife showed me the power of forgiveness by forgiving me and then forgiving her friend. I experienced the power of Christ's forgiveness through my wife as well as my friend, the husband whom I had harmed. He fully and genuinely forgave me, and then the two of them entered a few years of their own personal restoration, and the story is that both of us are still married to those spouses today, but the story does not stop there. Still married to those spouses today, but the story does not stop there. The Holy Spirit revealed to us that we were to reconcile as couples.

Speaker 1: 34:11

Now there were some, even key leaders and pastors in our churches that were telling us that such relationships weren't appropriate to reconcile. And in truth, we do not see examples of many of these relationships reconciled in our culture. We do not see examples of many of these relationships reconciled in our culture, unless you consider a divorced spouse, now amicable or even friendly, as being reconciled. Yet we all have to listen to the scriptures better than that than to arrive at a conclusion that it is inappropriate to reconcile any relationship. In the Lord if he wills it, and then he provides the way.

Speaker 1: 34:48

You see, the four of us felt the same pull of the Holy Spirit to come together. Where I asked the wife for her forgiveness, she did the same of me, and then we established whatever the new, restored and reconciled relationship would look like, going forward within the four of us. Mind you, this is many years of a comprehensive process boiled down into what it seems like a few sentences, but what came of this was absolutely glorious, though our relationship looked different and, don't get me wrong, it needed to be different now, for obvious reasons. Different, and, don't get me wrong, it needed to be different now for obvious reasons. We would now get together as families again for dinner, like we once had. I renewed my relationship with my good friend, the husband, and my wife did so with hers, and then, years later, as they were visiting home from one of their missionary trips, yes, they went on to fulfill God's plan for their lives.

Speaker 1: 35:48

Following their reconciliation, the husband and I stood on the stage together at my church and sharing our rare story of reconciliation on a Sunday that I was preaching. My wife and I have also spoken together often about our experiences with this process of uncommon reconciliation that took place after restoration to many people in the audience and, as a result, people often ask us the important questions and I'm sure some of them you as a listener have yourself Like how could you forgive one another? How could you trust your husband again, especially if the four of you were socializing later? How could my wife be friends with the best friend who betrayed her Again, let alone with me and the other wife? I will answer some of that now. Yet I know we are running out a little bit longer today and I see that, but I will try to keep that now. Yet I know we are running out a little bit longer today, and I see that, but I will try to keep my answers succinct.

Speaker 1: 36:49

We had new boundaries that were both imposed and necessary to provide the various relationships amongst us with protection, as well as true glory and worship to the Lord. Our suffering and our wounds, our sacrifices and our work to restore all of it was given over to God as our spiritual acts of worship. We now had the full perspective and understanding of our sin, the root of it, the plan of sabotage, as well as the brokenness in each of us that resulted in the carnage. Yet we also had the full plan of Jesus and his redemption and the fact that, when we repented for our sins and arrived at a healthy place, building trust in our marriages where we wouldn't re-offend each other again, and we were able to demonstrate to the world the powerful message of what loving one another truly looked like, we are loving God and loving others, and it looks this messy and this difficult at times. And it looks this messy and this difficult at times. But isn't God amazing? And wait a second. Doesn't my wife sound like a wonder woman? She truly is one of the most sacrificial and saintliest people I have ever met. She is beautiful inside and out and, for the record, we are better today than we have ever been as we face new challenges, post-surgery and post-personality changes.

Speaker 1: 38:17

I have always loved this verse from the scriptures that eloquently speaks truth to our unique situation and, through him, to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Colossians 1, 20-22,. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present, to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. We are made holy in his sight now, without blemish and now free from any accusations. Where are the scarlet S's? It's like what Jesus told the woman caught in adultery in his day. When Jesus straightened his figure up from scribbling something in the dirt, he asked her woman where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, sir. She said Then neither do I condemn you. But then Jesus declared this go now and leave your life of sin or go and sin no more. Jesus declared this go now and leave your life of sin or go and sin no more. I can picture Jesus asking us the same question, in the same way he did to the woman at the well, your accusers are now gone, so go and sin no more.

Speaker 1: 39:37

Translated properly and in the right tense, that we are to turn 180 degrees from our destructive behavior to repent, to seek his transformation. But what if you are in a situation where there is abuse? You might be wondering. Are you saying, jason, that I am to forgive my abuser and then reconcile with him? Not only have I been asked this question many times after sharing our story, but many pastors have made both the unbiblical and erroneous error to say that women in specific, ought to endure in their marriage as a survivor in abuse in all forms. This is offensive to my own hard work in the restoration process and it is to any other victims to hear that one is intended to endure the horrors of abuse in the name of forgiveness. I downright condemn this as evil.

Speaker 1: 40:28

We are called to repent for our sin and our actions, and if we are in a situation where one of the parties is unwilling to seek repentance or restoration, that is to walk the talk. Then other steps got to be taken and boundaries got to be drawn, and sometimes reconciliation just isn't possible. Forgiveness is always possible and remember, it is also a command. Restoration is always possible for somebody and, the way I read, we are to lay down our lives, hence submitting our will to his. I also hear this as a command. Reconciliation is beautiful and it glorifies the Lord when possible, but it is actually the one aspect which may or may not be possible, nor even appropriate in certain situations, and I have listed only a few of these here.

Speaker 1: 41:22

Friends, we will all have difficult people in our lives, most of which will not abuse us, but we will be frustrated with them. We will feel authentic and genuine strong feelings, and we will experience the brokenness of relationships going forward. Only when we get to heaven will we be full circle, complete, in an arena absent of of pain and suffering, without sadness and tears. We will be fully reconciled to the Lord, not just in spirit and truth, but finally in perfect glory, as we are in his presence full time once we get to that place. Until then, we must be adamant about leading our lives and our relationships towards restoration and reconciliation, and I hope, when you see that serpent, the devil and the enemy of our souls creep into your relationships, that you remember Jesus stepped on him, crushed his head, and we now have power and authority over his strategies as well, and we have an ability to demonstrate his glory through our story when we restore and rebuild that which the enemy has broken.

Speaker 1: 42:27

First, though, we have to be reconciled to Christ ourselves. That is the truth that I have searched far and wide and landed on in response to my own suffering for years. For those of you who are listening and you either feel compelled to respond by seeking forgiveness, restoration, or maybe even reconciling that relationship you have been neglected to, or if you are with us and you have never prayed to be forgiven for the sins that separate you from relationship with the Lord, and you're desiring that reconciliation today, then I want to pray for you right now. Then, I want to pray for you right now, lord Jesus. I repent of my sins and I surrender my life. Wash me clean. I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins and you rose again on the third day for my victory.

Speaker 1: 43:18

I believe that in my heart and make confession with my mouth that you, Jesus, are my Lord and my Savior. I want to live my life according to your terms and I want you to change my belief systems from the inside out, even those that have protected me or were founded at a time I was severely wounded mentally, emotionally or spiritually. I trust your plan and I ask for you to put the people and the process by which I need to pursue restoration into my life. I ask for you to reveal to me the relationships that I have neglected to reconcile due to the pain they have caused me, the pride in my own heart or whatever dynamics the enemy has utilized to keep us apart. If I am unable to reconcile for legitimate reasons, like maybe, ongoing abuse that they could project upon me, or maybe they have passed away, then I ask for your sovereign hand and for your peace to fill me. If I have been restored on my side of the street. Thank you, god, for being a God of mercy, a God of healing and a God of reconciliation. May I seek to be a reconciler in the relationships of my life. It's in your name, jesus, that I pray Amen. If you have today agreed with this prayer from the depths of your heart, I welcome you to the eternal family of God. I encourage you to find this orthodox, biblically-based faith family who worships the Lord passionately. Also, devote yourself to the reading of the scriptures, like we have done today. As you can tell, there is so much to gain from living this new life, and his guidance is found in these love letters, or the Bible to us.

Speaker 1: 45:01

Next time on the Hopeful Perspective podcast, we will examine this crazy political climate we live in and see where it is that we can find hope amongst the chaos. Are we, as a country, more divided than we ever have been? What do the scriptures actually tell us about our role as believers in politics, and do we see believers around us actually living out what the Bible says? Are we to look to the government or a governing official as the hope of the world, and how do we show Jesus and bridge the divide politics creates in our relationships? These are only but a few of the questions and principles that I will address on the next few episodes on the Hopeful Perspective.

Speaker 1: 45:49

Until then, I want to thank you for joining me along this journey and, if you would be so kind to follow, subscribe and, most importantly, to rate and write a review for others who may need the Hopeful Perspective. I would appreciate that Now you can contribute monetarily by pressing our support the show link that is embedded on your platform in the episode descriptions. All of your contributions are utilized to grow the podcast, to multiply our equipment, to broaden our reach and to share this hope of Christ. I want to shout out my gratitude to the multiple new donors who already have made this commitment to support this podcast financially. Without you, it would not be possible to reach as many people with the messages that we do or anyone who needs to be reminded that hope is real. So thank you so much in advance and until next time. Remember you are loved.